Civil War and Historical Markers
There are about 10 Civil War & Historic markers located within 6 miles of the Town of Shenandoah.
Shenandoah Iron Works
Union soldiers devastated nearby Shenandoah Valley farms during The Burning in October 1864, they did not destroy any ironworks that were operational in the area at the time.
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=16641
Shield’s Advance & Retreat
After General James Shields Army was defeated at Port Republic, his army retreated to and bivouacked in an area near the Price “ Verbena Mill.
http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=12079
The burning of Red Bridge
General Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson dispatched his mapmaker, Jedediah Hotchkiss, to burn the three bridges over the South Fork of the Shenandoah River in Page County.
http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=12085
Somerville Heights
Col. Robert S. Foster’s 13th Indiana regiment quickly countermarched and engaged Confederate forces near here for a half-hour under a most terrific fire. Ultimately, the Vermonters were able to swim the Shenandoah River to safety.
http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=12086
Catherine Furnace
Built in 1846, Catherine Furnace was one of three Page County furnaces in operation during the Civil War. The 30-foot-tall main stack is nearly all that remains of the cold blast furnace and once-huge operation here, when 22,500 acres supplied wood for charcoal, iron ore, and limestone, and food. With labor scarce, local whites, free blacks and slaves worked here to furnish the Confederacy with pig iron.
http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=15892
Miller - Kite House
Less than a month after his defeat at Kernstown, Gen. Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson retired to the Elk Run Valley to rest his troops and plan for the spring campaign. With his men camped all along Elk Run and into Swift Run Gap, Jackson made his headquarters here in Elkton (then Conrad’s Store). Jackson used this house, then the residence of the widow of John Argabright. According to staff member Henry Kyd Douglas, Jackson’s room was empty of furniture except for a thin mattress on the floor.
http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=2835
The Execution of Summers and Koontz
Virginia Department of Historical Resources, marker number J-95
On 22 May 1865, after the Civil War ended, Capt. George W. Summers, Sgt. I. Newton Koontz, and two other armed veterans of Co. D, 7th Virginia Cavalry, en route to obtain their paroles, robbed six Federal cavalrymen of their horses near Woodstock. The horses were returned the next day to the 192d Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Rude's Hill in Shenandoah County. Despite assurances that all was forgiven, Lt. Col. Cyrus Hussy, temporarily commanding the 192d, later ordered the men arrested at their homes in Page County. The other two escaped, but Summers and Koontz were shot without trial on Rude's Hill on 27 June. They were buried at different locations near here.
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=15902
Virginia State Historical Markers
The Stevens Cottage
The Stevens Cottage, located ¼ mile west, was built in 1890 to house the offices of the Shenandoah Land and Improvement Company. This restored post bellum building was designed by William M. Poindexter, in the shingle style of the Edwardian Period. It was part of a group of buildings erected in anticipation of an industrial boom in the Shenandoah Valley. The cottage later housed a school and in the twentieth century was the home of Miss Mamie Stevens.
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=12084
History of Verbena
Original Grant from
King George III to
Charles Cropson 1746.
1783 Grant from Beverly
Randolf, Governor of
Virginia to Jacob Mire.
1802 Jacob Mire
to George Price.
Original Mill Built 1803.
Verbena Park
and present mill built by
Wm. E & H.C. Hisey 1935.
Present Owners
Floyd E. & Ann T. Stanley
Purchased 1940.
http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=12083
First Settler
"Green Meadows," to the west, was the home of Adam Miller (1703-1783), one of the first Europeans to settle in the valley. The property remained in the Miller (originally Mueller) family from the 1740s through 1936.
http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=12074
